Have Choice!

It is Mindfulness that allows us to create a moment’s pause before reacting to an event or stimulus, allowing us to choose our response rather than continuing on automatic pilot.

This means that things that may have angered us or frustrated us in the past can occur again and we can choose not to become angry or frustrated.

Over time, the practice of Mindfulness will actually cause our brains to extinguish the negative feelings associated with these memories, replacing them with neutral or positive feelings. Gradually, fewer and fewer things automatically trigger our red zones and we have a moment to choose our response without it being an effort of will.

Mindfulness increases our capacity to be self-determining, to choose our response independently of what may have happened to us in the past and what is being presented to us now.

Self-determination is an innate need that we have, often described as the need to have a measure of control over our life be it at work or at home.

Self-determination is critical to autonomous motivation, the form of motivation that underpins 21st century skills.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter. Earlier blogs can be found here.